FARMING AS A BUSINESS. 15I 



it does not give the detailed particulars obtainable from a costing 

 system. 



Horse labour plays so large a part in the total cost of produc- 

 tion of most farm produce that it is worth while referring to an 

 example of the importance of paying close attention to this 

 item, drawn from data recently compiled by the Institute. The 

 maximum number of working days in a year is 312, a total 

 obviously unobtainable in practice. Detailed figures regarding 

 the empiojonent and cost of upkeep of the horses on four farms 

 were collected, and it was shown that if the horses had been em- 

 ployed for the maximum number of 312 days during the year, they 

 would have cost 2s. yd. to keep for each day worked, whereas owing 

 to the time lost the actual cost was 3s. yd. This clearly points to a 

 waste of horse labour which could be avoided by skilful manage- 

 ment, and one of the tests of a farmer's efficiency is provided 

 by an examination of the distribution of horse-labour throughout 

 the year on his farm. His cropping and other work should be 

 so contrived as to provide for the uniform utilisation of horse- 

 labour month by month. In the case of the farms above referred 

 to, the percentage of days worked to possible horse-days varied 

 from 38% in July to 82% in February. While some variation 

 is, of course, inevitable, it should not be so great as this. The 

 problem may be put in a more concrete form by reference to a 

 further example, taken from the records of a weU-managed East 

 Midlands fami. The farmer employs 26 horses, and during each 

 of the six years ending 1918-19, the number of days worked per 

 horse was about 244. Thus the total horse-daj^s required during 

 the year was 244x26=6,344. If he reduced his horses by two, 

 the remaining 24 must work 265 days each. The problem for the 

 farmer, therefore, is whether he can so arrange his cropping or 

 other system that his horses may be worked for a further 21 days 

 each. If so he can reduce his horses by 2, which would also mean 

 a saving in labour nearly equal to one man. 



Farm Organisation. 

 There are questions which arise in the minds of most farmers, 

 to which practical and useful answers can be deduced from a 

 methodical study of the organisation of the various types of 

 farming. For example, a fanner with a certain amount of capital, 

 perhaps mainly represented by live- and dead-farming stock, 

 may ask whether it would pay him better to use this capital on the 

 land he occupies, or to add another fifty acres to his farm. Or he 

 may say : "I have a little more capital than I am now using on 

 my land. Should I use more labour on the land I have, or obtain 

 more land and spread it over that ? " He may even say : " My 



